#artistprofessionaldevelopment

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Business of Art | Literary Submissions 101

Top tips for getting your work seen by editors and publishers.

When it comes to getting your work published, writing is only half of the job. Submitting your work to publications is also a big part of being a writer, and it requires some strategizing. Not sure where to begin? We compiled a series of tips from previous NYFA Current articles, plus updated best practices, and some very helpful advice from former #ArtistHotline guest chat participants Elisa Gabbert and Lincoln Michel. So take a deep breath, gather your courage, and take note of the tips below before starting to submit your work!

Step 1 - Doing the Research

It might sound obvious, but we will say it one more time for the people in the back: you must read and familiarize yourself with the publications you’re considering sending your work to. What kind of work do they typically publish? Do any of their published works stand out to you? Who is their audience? When do they usually have open calls? 

If you’re not sure how to begin this research, a good place to start is by following the steps of your main inspirations. Where have they published before? Have they written about their process anywhere? Do they talk about it in interviews? Interact with them on social media, but don’t expect them to take you by the hand and answer all of your questions, especially if unsolicited. Every now and then writers will feel like engaging on Instagram or Twitter, either creating threads or soliciting questions. Take advantage of these moments, but don’t be invasive. You can also follow hashtags like #pubtip and #querytip, used by writers, agents, and editors to share snippets of advice for aspiring writers. Another great way to understand where your heroes currently are and how they got there, is by reading the “Thank Yous” and “Acknowledgments” in their publications. 

Step 2 - Getting Organized

Step number one means you’ll collect a lot of information, which can quickly become unparsable. Before that happens, we suggest preparing a spreadsheet where you can organize all the publications you believe are a good match. Here’s a sample spreadsheet with some basic information you should have on hand for tracking your submissions. You might have to submit several times before getting a yes (and that’s totally normal), so make sure to track your “yes” and “no” responses and feedback received (if any) for future applications.

Feeling overwhelmed? Prioritize your submissions. What is your dream venue? If it’s a super-selective place, they’ll probably require a more extensive publication history. Focus on building this history first, perhaps applying to smaller names in the industry, and then aiming for the powerhouses. The most important thing here is to make sure this process doesn’t compromise your writing time. Here are a few tips on how to balance your time between submitting work and making it. 

Step 3 - Selecting Materials

Your “favorite-ever-thing-you-have-ever-written” is probably great, but it still might not be the best fit for a particular open call. When choosing what materials to send out, ask yourself the following question: does this work fit seamlessly with the other stories, essays, or poems this platform typically publishes? Choose objectively.

Along with your writing, open calls may ask for other supporting materials. The main one, and arguably, the most feared, is the cover letter. According to Lincoln Michel, writers don’t need to worry so much about them, focusing on keeping them short, direct, and simple. It's still important to know who you’re writing to, though. Show you did your research by matching the style of the publishing venue, Elisa Gabbert advises. CVs, references, and bios are other common files requested. Learn how to prepare them with these older, but golden tips from BinderCon. In terms of design, err on the side of cleanliness. Stick to the basics unless formatting is a big part of your text (for example, if you’re writing concrete poetry). 

Last but not least, follow the guidelines! Remember, one very important thing must happen before an editor even gets to read your submission: you must make it out of the slush pile. Due to competitiveness or likely lack of time on the side of jurors, you might receive a rejection simply because you did not follow simple rules like sticking to the word count or labeling your files correctly. 

Step 4 - Dealing with the Nos

Rejection is normal and does not necessarily mean your work is not good enough. Maybe your manuscript got lost in the slush pile—it happens to the best of us—or maybe it was not a good fit for the platform at that particular moment. 

Use rejections as a teachable moment. Ask for feedback if possible, but don’t be offended if editors are not able to answer. If you do get a response, don’t feel pressured to internalize all critiques or to revamp your work completely. Know your writing and your value as a writer so you can process useful commentary and disregard the rest. Follow the advice of Gabbert and develop a network of trusted peers (folks in the industry, friends) that can be your beta-readers and be ready to accept and learn from honest criticism. 

- Luiza Teixeira-Vesey, Designer/Marketing Officer

This article draws inspiration from #ArtistHotline, an initiative dedicated to creating an ongoing online conversation around the professional side of artistic practice. Our goal is to help artists discover the resources needed, online and off, to develop sustainable careers. You can follow NYFA at @nyfacurrent​ on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Find Elisa Gabbert and Lincoln Michel tweeting at @egabbert and @TheLincoln.

Have an arts career question? You can contact NYFA staff directly by emailing source@nyfa.org.

Image: Gil Avineri (Fellow in Printmaking/Drawing/Book Arts Fellow ’14); Ghastly Spread Between; 2009; color pencil, ink, acrylic, photo,collage on paper

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👉👉 Posted @withregram • @mdp_info 📣📣📣 We’re pleased to announce our call for applications for STUDIOBOOK {ONLINE} 2021 👉 https://markdevereuxprojects.com 👈👀 Following the success of last year’s course, STUDIOBOOK {ONLINE} offers practical, discursive and tailored workshops and one-to-one sessions for 12 artists across the UK. Application deadline: Friday 30 July, 5pm. Mark will also be leading the next DYCP Application writing workshop on Wednesday 21 July, 6'7:30pm for artists interested in applying for Round 11 of Arts Council England's funding programme. Find out more via the link in our bio 👀 . . . #studiobook #studiobookonline #onlinecourse #artistdevelopment #artistdevelopmentprogram #artistprofessionaldevelopment #artistmentor #artistmentoring #onlineworkshops #mentoring #dycp #developingyourcreativepractice #applicationwritingworkshop #applicationwriting #artsfunding #artsfundraising #art #artist #artistsoninstagram #supportingartists (at Online) https://www.instagram.com/p/CQY3JZ0FvHw/?utm_medium=tumblr

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🎨👩🏿‍💻 #ArtIsAWeapon @twitter chat for #artcurators today: Regrann from @nyfacurrent - Get guidance on charting a path as a curator on Twitter. Use the hashtag #ArtistHotline in each tweet between 1-3 PM EST for advice from a multidisciplinary panel: @youngglobal, Senior Curator at @mocadetroit; @xavinisms, a performance maker and curator; and Cheryl Tipp, Curator of Wildlife and Environmental Sounds at @britishlibrary. 👉 Follow the link in our bio to learn more about participating. And be sure to join us on Twitter throughout the day, between 11 AM EST- 4 PM EST, to tweet about a range of arts career topics. . 📷: Image courtesy: Larry Ossei-Mensah, photo credit: Andy Boyle; images courtesy: Xavier de Sousa and Cheryl Tipp . #ArtistProfessionalDevelopment #TwitterChat #BusinessofArt #ArtistOpportunity #AskACurator #LarryOsseiMensah #XavierdeSousa #PerformanceCurator #ArtCurator #Curatorial #TraScapades #ArtIsAWeapon https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn56XGzHSCC/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=u31libg4gich

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Register Now | Online Course: Build and Develop Your Fundraising Strategies

A deep dive into proposal writing, developing your networks, and individual giving this September and October via Zoom.

Interested in upping your fundraising game this fall? Join New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and Asylum Arts as we offer an online course on developing and building fundraising strategies for your career and art practice. The course, which will provide deep-dives into proposal writing, developing your networks, and individual giving, is designed for artists of all disciplines and will be accessible anywhere you have internet access through Zoom. It will be taught by Rebecca Guber, Founder and Director of Asylum Arts.

The September and October course will focus on two topics: “Proposal Writing: How to Work Smarter, Not Harder, On Getting What You Want” and “Developing Your Networks and Individual Fundraising.” Each topic is comprised of a webinar and an interactive workshop, and artists can register for one or both depending on their individual needs. In order to provide personalized feedback, interactive workshops will be capped at 25 participants; those registering for an interactive workshop must first take the webinar on that topic. 

Cost:

$25 for one webinar

$75 for one webinar and the corresponding interactive workshop

$125 for the full course of two webinars and two interactive workshops

Guber, who brings 20 years of expertise in the art world to the course, has been called a “kind, knowledgeable presenter” and her previous proposal writing workshop was reviewed as a “lively, informative overview” by participant Laura Maria Censabella. "Even after being in the 'business’ for a while, I learned some things I can be doing better," said Censabella.

Read on for more details on each and how to register.

Proposal Writing: How to Work Smarter, Not Harder, On Getting What You Want

Webinar: Wednesday, September 23, 2020, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM EDT Interactive Workshop: Wednesday, September 30, 2020, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM EDT

Many opportunities for artists require written proposals, which can seem like a skill far away from your artistic process. This topic is geared towards individual artists seeking grant or residency program opportunities or who are looking to pitch projects via written materials.

The September 23 webinar will cover: 

How to present your best self and work in written proposals.

Different types of proposals that artists may encounter.

Common elements of a proposal and best practices.

How to be most efficient with your research and proposal writing.

What happens during the review process.

The September 30 interactive workshop will provide:

In-depth explanation of the different types of project budgets.

How to use budgets to tell the story of your project.

Pitfalls and challenges of budgets.

Key aspects of strong artist statements.

Feedback on your artist statement.

For more detailed information and to register for “Proposal Writing: How to Work Smarter, Not Harder, On Getting What You Want,” click here.

Developing Your Networks and Individual Fundraising

Webinar: Wednesday, October 21, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM EDT Interactive Workshop: Wednesday, October 28, 2020, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM EDT

This topic is for individual artists and those who run companies/organizations who would like to incorporate individual giving into their fundraising model, and better activate and cultivate their existing networks. 

The October 21 webinar will cover:

Fundamentals of individual giving.

Why people give.

Cultivation and relationship-building techniques.

How to ask for money.

How artists can leverage their networks to increase support for their work.

The October 28 interactive workshop will provide:

An in-depth look into the topics covered in the October 21 webinar.

Ways to identify your existing network and opportunities for growth.

Tips for speaking compellingly about your creative projects as a way to gain support.

Role-play and practice asking for funding

For more detailed information and to register for "Developing Your Networks and Individual Fundraising,” click here.

Interested in taking the full course? 

For more detailed information and to register for “Proposal Writing: How to Work Smarter, Not Harder, On Getting What You Want” and “Developing Your Networks and Individual Fundraising,” click here.

Presenter’s Bio: Rebecca Guber is the Director and Founder of Asylum Arts, a global network of over 600 emerging Jewish artists. She was previously the founder and Director of the Six Points Fellowship. Guber has built a community of artists exploring Jewish ideas and identity through fellowship commissions for new work, grants, international retreats, and professional development. Over the last 12 years, her projects have been the largest direct funder of emerging Jewish artists, distributing over 1.5 million dollars for new projects. Artists supported through her efforts have produced readings, workshops, and performances and have been featured in hundreds of articles and blog posts, including major press, radio, and national TV. Guber has also worked at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Museum of Jewish Heritage, and founded the Shpatzirin Festival. She has reviewed many thousands of proposals over her 20 years in the art world and has facilitated many review panels. Guber hates jargon, and loves proposals that are unusual, interesting, and paint a clear picture. 

Questions? Email learning@nyfa.org. 

This program is presented by NYFA Learning. Sign up here to receive NYFA News, a bi-weekly organizational email for upcoming awards, resources, and professional development. NYFA Learning also offers the monthly Immigrant Artist Program (IAP) Newsletter if you are interested in opportunities, professional development, events, and tips and advice specific to immigrant artists.

Image: NYFA Online Learning: Proposal Writing: How to Work Smarter, Not Harder, on Getting What You Want!, September 2019, Courtesy NYFA

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Register Now | Film Pitches and Grant Applications: What Funders Really Want to Know, and Why

April 21 online workshop will provide an overview for early and mid-career filmmakers and media artists wishing to improve their fundraising skills.

New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is pleased to present “Film Pitches and Grant Applications: What Funders Really Want to Know, and Why” for early and mid-career filmmakers and media artists on Tuesday, April 21 from 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM EST. The workshop, presented by NYFA Coach and Media Specialist Matthew Seig, is part of our Online Learning Initiative that provides professional development workshops to artists and creatives nationally and internationally through a webinar platform. 

Workshop Description: Your letters of introduction and grant applications do more than just describe what your project is and who you are. They are a window into your skills, the viability of your project, and your professional and personal profile. We are going to talk about all of this, and some of the important factors that will govern your success, in “Film Pitches and Applications: What Funders Really Want to Know, and Why.” Regardless of whether your project is nonprofit or for-profit in nature, many of the same practices are important to both.

Topics will include:

The format: Do you understand the rules and standards of the community?

The narrative: Are you really a storyteller?

The budget: Does it tell the same story as your narrative?

The outreach and distribution: Who is your audience specifically?

The biography: Why is this the right project for you right now, and what is your network?

The team: Do they complement and elevate you, your project, and your network?

Presenter: Matthew Seig, NYFA Coach and Media/Film Specialist  Title: Film Pitches and Grant Applications: What Funders Really Want to Know, and Why Date: Tuesday, April 21, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM  Location: Online  Program Fee: FREE* Registration: We have unfortunately reached the registration limit for this webinar. Please check NYFA’s event page for details on future programming. Questions: Email learning@nyfa.org

This workshop will be recorded and shared with all previously-registered participants after the session concludes. It will be available for viewing up to one month after the workshop date.

*NYFA’s mission to empower working artists and emerging arts organizations across all disciplines at critical stages in their creative lives and professional/organizational development. We aim to be a resource to artists, arts administrators, and students everywhere, especially when so many in our creative community are reeling from lost jobs, opportunities, and income as a result of the coronavirus crisis. As such, we are taking action in a variety of ways including waiving registration fees on our webinars. 

Presenter’s Bio: A Media Specialist at NYFA, Matthew Seig is an experienced producer and production executive for film and television, director of documentary films, film programmer, exhibitor, and rights licensor. He manages a library of copyrights including those belonging to the late producer/director Robert Altman. Seig helped establish the Altman Archive at the University of Michigan, and edited a book about Altman’s life and films that was published by Abrams Books in 2014. 

For NYFA and with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, he produced a series of interviews with independent filmmakers on the subject of building audiences—one of the many skills that funders look at when considering financial backing for a filmmaker—that were conducted by Eugene Hernandez of the Film Society of Lincoln Center. In recent years, Seig has spoken about and moderated panels on fundraising for filmmakers at The Foundation Center, Producers Guild of America, Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema, and others.

Our 2020 Spring workshop series highlights NYFA Coaching, a professional development service that offers access to one-on-one individual guidance from a variety of arts professionals, including NYFA staff. 

This program is part of NYFA Learning, which includes professional development for artists and arts administrators. Sign up for NYFA’s free bi-weekly newsletter to receive updates on future programs.

Image: Courtesy NYFA

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Register Now | Spring 2020 Online Workshops

Workshops begin on February 18 and are themed around landing your dream job in the arts, artist statements, what funders want to know, and realistic budgets for artists.

New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is pleased to announce the next four workshops in its next Online Learning initiative, which provides professional development workshops to artists and creatives nationally and internationally through a webinar platform. The workshops are all led by specialized coaches from our NYFA Coaching program, who bring many years of experience as art industry leaders to their presentations. As many of our professional development programs are focused on building community, and these online sessions also provide virtual networking opportunities to registered participants.

Each workshop in this series costs $25, and registration starts six weeks prior to the session date.

February 18 How to Find and Land Your Dream Job in the Arts! Presented by Maria Villafranca

Are you passionate about the arts and looking for a career where you can contribute to a vibrant cultural sector? Whether you are an entry-level job-seeker or an experienced manager who is interested in a career transition, this workshop will help you define your career path, find opportunities, and walk you through all stages of a job search from applying to interviewing to negotiating an offer. We’ll discuss arts-specific resources covering a range of disciplines, common application missteps, and how to strategically network in the field. You’ll walk away with a clearer sense of how to frame your career for new opportunities and essential strategies for landing your dream job in the arts.

March 17 Writing About Your Artwork: Artist Statements Presented by Michelle Levy  Register here via Eventbrite

Have you ever found writing an artist statement overwhelming? Not sure where to start or what to include? Have you struggled with staying true to your voice while matching established expectations? Writing an artist statement should be easy—after all, you are the number-one expert on your own work. But the reality is that no matter how good of a writer you are, writing about your own work is never easy because it is so close to you. Yet, it is crucial to have an effective statement that represents your work well and makes an impact. Further, the process of crafting a strong statement is an important exercise for every artist, as it helps clarify your ideas and benefits your artistic development as a whole.

NYFA’s mission to empower working artists and emerging arts organizations across all disciplines at critical stages in their creative lives and professional/organizational development. We aim to be a resource to artists, arts administrators, and students everywhere, especially when so many in our creative community are reeling from lost jobs, opportunities, and income as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

As such, we are taking action in a variety of ways including waiving registration fees on our upcoming webinars. For the following webinars, you will have one month to access the recording after the live session.

April 21 Film Pitches and Grant Applications: What Funders Really Want to Know, and Why Presented by Matthew Seig Register here via Eventbrite

This workshop will review what all funders want to know about you and your film, regardless of whether they are investors and producers (for profit) or donors and foundations (nonprofit). Understanding why funders are asking the questions they ask will help you craft better answers.

May 19 Realistic Budgets for Artists: Breaking down Project ideas for Fundraising Opportunities Presented by Gabriella Calandro and Anne Muntges Register here via Eventbrite

In this workshop, participants will learn how to assign value to their time, clearly allocate and spend money on a project, and how to best structure budgets for project and funding opportunities. Participants will leave the workshop with a better idea of how to paint a clear picture about their project through their budget. 

How It Works:

Each session lasts for 90 minutes, including the lecture and Q&A.

Each session will take place online from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM EST.

Creatives from around the world can join workshops through our webinar platform or international call-in numbers.

Participants will have access to the presenters during the live sessions, and also to the program materials and recordings after the workshops as long as they register before the session starts.

Registrants will have access to the recordings for six months following the session unless otherwise noted.

This program is presented by NYFA Learning. Sign up here to receive NYFA News, a bi-weekly organizational email for upcoming awards, resources, and professional development. NYFA Learning also offers the monthly Con Edison Immigrant Artist Program (IAP) Newsletter if you are interested in opportunities, professional development, events, and tips and advice specific to immigrant artists.

Looking for individualized support? NYFA Coaching gives artists and creatives an opportunity to have personalized consultation sessions specific to their own circumstances and needs. Past NYFA Coaching sessions have focused on topics including cover letter and resume review, portfolio feedback, and support in crafting a fundraising or marketing strategy. Artists set the agenda, pick the coach, and book their one-on-one coaching session. They can attend their appointment via a phone call, Skype, or in person at NYFA’s Brooklyn office (if with NYFA staff).

Image: Amy Aronoff for NYFA

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Register Now | Fall 2019 Online Workshops

Workshops begin on September 17 and will cover proposal writing, the logistics of exhibition planning, and more.

New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is pleased to announce its next Online Learning initiative to provide professional development workshops to artists and creatives nationally and internationally through a webinar platform.

Arts professionals in all disciplines, organization types, and sizes can now explore the fundamental principles of sustainability in the arts and the essentials of working in the arts industry from anywhere with an internet connection. As many of our professional development programs are focused on building community, these online sessions also provide virtual networking opportunities to registered participants. Each session in this series costs $25. Registration starts six weeks prior to the workshop date.

The 2019 fall workshops are all led by alumni from NYFA’s Emerging Leaders Program. Now in its fifth year, NYFA’s Emerging Leaders Boot Camp is a free leadership development program for arts administrators from all disciplines within commuting distance to New York City. NYFA firmly believes that through this program, we make an investment in the cultural infrastructure that will ultimately benefit the entire field, building stronger connections and shared knowledge between artists and arts administrators.

September 17 Proposal Writing: How to Work Smarter, Not Harder, on Getting What You Want Presented by Rebecca Guber, Founder & Director, Asylum Arts

Many opportunities for artists require written proposals, which can seem like a skill far removed from your artistic process. This session will delve into how to open doors by presenting your best self and work in written proposals. We will touch on the different types of proposals and how to begin the process. We will also go into the different pieces of a proposal including the introductory letter, project description, artistic statement, bio, CV, and budget. Guber will shed light on what happens during the review process, and discuss the most common missteps artists make.

October 22 Exhibitions: Polished and Professional Production Presented by Heidi Elbers, Director of Exhibitions, New York Academy of Art Register: Please register for the program here.

Are you looking to create an opportunity to show your work? Or maybe you have a great idea for an exhibition and don’t know where to start? This workshop is meant to help you develop a professional exhibition from start to finish. It will review the universal documents and terms involved in exhibition production, which is also helpful for those considering a shift towards an exhibition admin role. The focus will be on the more logistical side of exhibition planning but also keeping it creative so you feel in control to “choose your own adventure.” Elbers looks forward to helping you to produce a top-notch exhibition.

November 19 Digital Marketing: How to Stay Authentic, Efficient, and Effective Presented by Reynaldi Lindner Lolong, Associate Director, Digital Engagement, The Public Theater Register: Please register for the program here.

From email to social media to websites, digital communications are part of our way of life, and are an essential part of any arts marketer’s toolkit. But how can we leverage these tools to communicate an artistic product and also create meaningful connections with our audiences? And in an ever-changing media landscape, how do you know what approach is right for you?

Aimed at individual artists or arts administrators just wanting to get the pulse of the digital landscape, this workshop will look at two contrasting examples of how traditional marketing plans ladder up into digital strategy. We’ll also look at some best practices across different social platforms, as well as tips and tricks for measuring success.

How It Works:

Each session lasts for 90 minutes, including the lecture and Q&A.

Each session will take place from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM EST.

Creatives from around the world can join workshops through our webinar platform or international call-in numbers.

Participants will have access to the presenters during the live sessions, and also to the program materials and recordings after the workshops as long as they register before the session starts.

Registrants will have access to the recordings for six months following the session.

This program is part of NYFA Learning, which includes professional development for artists and arts administrators. Sign up for NYFA’s free bi-weekly newsletter to receive updates on future programs.

Image: Courtesy NYFA Learning

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Announcing | Creative Careers Online Workshop Series

Learn about the intricacies of choosing a creative career from the comfort of your home, studio, or anywhere with internet access.

The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is pleased to announce its next Online Learning initiative to provide professional development workshops to arts administrators and arts professionals nationally and internationally through a webinar platform.

Arts professionals in all disciplines, organization types, and sizes can now explore the principles of working in the arts industry from anywhere with an internet connection. As many of our professional development programs are focused on building community, these online sessions also provide virtual networking opportunities to registered participants.

The “NYFA Online Learning: Creative Careers” series is curated by Mara Vlatković and is designed to guide you on the ins and outs of being a professional in the arts industry. Whether you're just starting out, have been in the midst of it for years, or are looking for new challenges or opportunities, you'll find great advice and inspiration in this series. You can register for all the workshops in a row as they build off of each other, or attend the one that speaks to your current situation and needs.

Each session in this series costs $25. Registration starts six weeks prior to the workshop date.

April 30 Finding a Job in the Arts Presented by Adrienne Stortz, Director of Special Projects, Arts Initiative & Miller Theatre, Columbia University Registration: Please register for the program here.

Are you new to job hunting in the arts? Or are you looking for new opportunities but haven't been a jobseeker for a few years? The arts world can be challenging to navigate: what does “networking” mean in an age of social media, how do you determine which jobs you want, where do you find job postings, and how do you make your resume really stand out? This workshop will take you through the process of finding a new job, including searching, applying, interviewing, and negotiating an offer. You will come away with a clear roadmap of how to land your next dream gig in the arts.

May 21 Arts Administration: Defining Roles Presented by Andrew Taylor, Associate Professor of Arts Management, American University Registration: Please register for the program here.

Arts Administration and Arts Management are broad terms that contain a multitude of roles and functions. What’s the best fit for you, and how do you find and grow into the work you’re most connected to? This session will explore the many parts and players that transform creative inspiration into fully realized artistic work—from production and management to marketing, development, operations, finance, education, and more. If you’re thinking of switching or extending your work in the arts, or hoping to connect your strongest skills with the art-world’s greatest needs, come learn about the individual pieces and the whole that make the arts and artists thrive.

June 18 Navigating Office Politics Presenter to be announced.

There is no workplace without office politics. Water cooler conversations, favoritism, micromanagement, work friends—they're all part of a larger structure that informs your day-to-day work experience. Learn how to navigate and use the organizational framework of your workplace to advance and excel in your career. Small changes and adjustments can have a large impact and can make everyone's work day easier and more comfortable. Identify new ways of managing up or down and how to grow in organizations that might lack support, professional development, or good HR practices.

How It Works:

Each session lasts for 90 minutes, including the lecture and Q&A.

Each session will take place from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM EST.

Creatives from around the world can join workshops through our webinar platform or international call-in numbers.

Participants will have access to the presenters during the live sessions, and also to the program materials and recordings after the workshops as long as they register before the session starts.

Registrants will have access to the recordings for six months following the session.

This program is part of NYFA Learning, which includes professional development for artists and arts administrators. Sign up for NYFA’s free bi-weekly newsletter to receive updates on future programs.

Image: Online learning participant. Background: Margeaux Walter, Ready Set, 2014, Digital C-Print mounted to aluminum, Photo Credit: NYFA

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Event | Doctor’s Hours for Film/Video, New Media, and Multidisciplinary Artists

This Monday, April 1 event will offer one-on-one individual consultations with industry professionals.

Are you a film/video, new media, or multidisciplinary artist in need of some career advice? The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is pleased to announce an upcoming session of its popular Doctor’s Hours program, which is designed to provide creatives with practical and professional advice. Starting at 11:00 AM on Monday, March 11, you can register for 20-minute, one-on-one appointments with up to three arts professionals to ask questions and receive actionable tips for advancing your arts career.

Title: Doctor’s Hours for Film/Video, New Media, and Multidisciplinary Artists Program Date and Time: Monday, April 1, 2019, 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM   Location: The New York Foundation for the Arts, 20 Jay Street, Suite 740, Brooklyn NY, 11201 Cost: $38 per 20-minute appointment; three appointment limit per artist Register: Please click here to register

If you can not participate in our Doctor’s Hours program on April 1, you can book a one-on-one remote consultation via Skype through our new Doctor’s Hours On Call program.

Read our Tips & FAQs in English and Spanish to make the most of your Doctor’s Hours appointment. For questions, email learning@nyfa.org.

Consultants

Livia Bloom Ingram, Film Curator and Vice President of Icarus Films Icarus Films is a distribution firm that The New York Times calls "a haven for nonfiction films that are at once socially conscious and supremely artful." Ingram has presented programs at venues including the Cinémathèque Française, Museum of the Moving Image, and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). She is the editor of the book Errol Morris: Interviews (University Press of Mississippi, 2009), and her writing has appeared in journals including Cinema Scope, Cineaste, Filmmaker, and Film Comment.

Iyabo Boyd, Independent Film Producer, Writer/Director, and Entrepreneur Boyd is currently producing the feature documentary For Ahkeem by Emmy-winning directors Jeremy Levine and Landon Van Soest. She previously held positions at filmmaker support institutions Chicken & Egg Pictures, Tribeca Film Institute, Hamptons Film Festival, and IFP. In 2015, Boyd started the Brown Girls Doc Mafia, a collective for women filmmakers of color, and in 2016 she founded the documentary consulting firm Feedback Loop. Boyd is a 2016 Sundance Creative Producers Fellow, and a 2016 Impact Partners Creative Producers Fellow. She graduated from NYU’s Tisch School with a BA degree in Film & Television in 2006. 

Peter Gynd, Director, Lesley Heller Gallery Gynd is an independent curator, fifth generation artist, and the director at Lesley Heller Gallery in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Originally from Vancouver, Canada, Gynd studied at the Alberta College of Art and Design and has exhibited in both Canada and the United States. Notable exhibitions curated by Gynd include a permanent exhibition at the Foundation Center, NY; an acclaimed two-person presentation at SPRING/BREAK Art Show (2015); and group exhibitions at Present Company, NY; NARS Foundation, NY; the Northside Festival, NY; Lesley Heller Workspace, NY; and at the Dynamo Arts Association, Vancouver, Canada. Gynd’s exhibitions have been featured in Hyperallergic, The Carnegie Reporter, Blouin Artinfo, and Gothamist. Gynd has been a guest visitor at Residencies Unlimited, Kunstraum, and ChaNorth Artist Residency, and a guest juror at 440 Gallery and Sweet Lorraine Gallery.

Dr. Les Joynes, Multimedia Artist Joynes' work has been documented in Art Monthly, Sculpture Magazine, NHK Television, and in two recent books on site-specific art. He is co-author of Going Beyond: Art as Adventure and Museum 2050 (Cambridge Scholars, 2018). A Visiting Professor at Renmin University, Beijing, Joynes has given lectures on multi-media art at Cambridge University; Columbia University; University of California; and Peking University, Beijing. In New York, he is a scholar on art and visual cultures at Columbia University and serves on the Editorial Board for ProjectAnywhere, a collaborative project between University of Melbourne, Australia, and Parsons School of Design, The New School. Recently selected as a ZERO1: Art and Technology Artist, Joynes is also recipient of the Erasmus Scholarship for the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts, Paris; the Japan Ministry of Culture Scholarship, Tokyo; and the Fulbright-Hays Award. He has also been a Fellow at University of the Arts London and the Bauhaus, Dessau. 

Matthew Lyons, Curator, The Kitchen As Curator at The Kitchen, Lyons has organized numerous exhibitions, performances, and other programs since 2005. Recent work includes projects with Chitra Ganesh, Trajal Harrell, nora chipaumire, Xaviera Simmons, Sarah Michelson, Aki Sasamoto, Constance DeJong, Kembra Pfahler, and Katherine Hubbard. Upcoming work includes projects with Moriah Evans and Lea Bertucci. During his tenure, he has organized group exhibition including The Rehearsal; The View from a Volcano: The Kitchen’s SoHo Years 1971-1985; One Minute More; Just Kick It Till It Breaks (catalog); Between Thought and Sound: Graphic Notation in Contemporary Music (catalog); and The Future As Disruption. He has also worked on the group exhibitions Dance Dance Revolution at Columbia University, Character Generator at Eleven Rivington Gallery, and Two Moon July at Paula Cooper Gallery. Lyons has contributed catalog essays on the work of Mika Tajima and Vlatka Horvat, and other writing has appeared in Document Journal, Flash Art, PERFORMA 07: Everywhere and All at Once, and Work the Room: A Handbook of Performance Strategies. He is Contributing Editor at Movement Research Performance Journal, having edited its “Six Sides, Typologically Distinct: Black Box / White Cube” series, which he initiated, between 2009-2015.

Blandine Mercier-McGovern, Content Strategy & Film Acquisitions, Distribution Executive Mercier-McGovern is a passionate and innovative film acquisition, content strategy, and distribution executive based in Brooklyn. While Head of Licensing & Content Strategy at Kanopy and Head of Distribution at Cinema Guild, Blandine discovered, acquired, and led the release of hundreds of award-winning films, from the big screen to video-on-demand. She’s an avid podcast and audiobook listener, and was a ”Made in NY” Women’s Film, TV and Theatre Fund panelist in 2018.

Anne Wheeler, Curatorial Associate, The Whitney Museum of American Art Wheeler is a New York-based artist, curator, writer, and art historian. She received her BA degree from the University of California, Berkeley, double-majoring in English and the Practice of Art, and is now an ABD doctoral candidate in Art History at the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU, specializing in Modern and Contemporary Art. Wheeler joined the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2010 at the founding of its Panza Collection Initiative research project, and served as assistant curator for the major international loan exhibitions On Kawara – Silence (2015) and Peter Fischli David Weiss: How to Work Better (2016). With Shawna Vesco, Wheeler curated the apexart Franchise Program exhibition Un-Working the Icon: Kurdish 'Warrior-Divas' in Berlin, Germany, in 2017. Wheeler is currently working as a curatorial associate at the Whitney Museum of American Art, guiding the acquisition of a major gift from the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation as she completes her doctoral dissertation titled 'Language as Material: Rereading Robert Smithson.'

Lauren Zelaya, Acting Director of Public Programs, Brooklyn Museum Zelaya is a cultural producer, curator, and museum educator based in Brooklyn, NY. At Brooklyn Museum, Zelaya curates and produces the Target First Saturdays and other free and low-cost public programs that invite over 100,000 visitors a year to engage with special exhibitions and collections in new and unexpected ways. As a curator, advocate, and educator, Zelaya is committed to collaborating with emerging artists and centering voices in our communities that are often marginalized, with a focus on film and performance and creating programming for and with LGBTQ+, immigrant, and Caribbean communities. In her spare time she hosts a bi-weekly radio show celebrating creatives in Brooklyn and is a screener for the Brooklyn Film Festival. Known and respected equally for her nail art and her fierce commitment to bringing art and culture to the people, Zelaya was named one of Brooklyn Magazine’s “30 Under 30″ in 2018. Previously, she worked in education at the Queens Museum and the Museum of the Moving Image, and with emerging artists in Queens as a program coordinator with the Queens Council on the Arts. She is a proud alumna of the Brooklyn Museum’s Education and Public Programs Fellowship and received her BA degree in Art History and Film Studies from Smith College.

Event Accessibility

The New York Foundation for the Arts is committed to making events held at the NYFA office at 20 Jay Street in Brooklyn accessible. If you are mobility-impaired and need help getting to NYFA’s office for events held on premises, we are pleased to offer complimentary car service from the wheelchair accessible Jay Street-MetroTech subway station courtesy of transportation sponsor Legends Limousine. Please email learning@nyfa.org or call 212.366.6900 ext. 252 between 9:30 AM - 5:30 PM at least three business days in advance of the event to coordinate. The elevator access point for pickup is at 370 Jay Street, on the NE corner of Jay and Willoughby Streets.

This program is presented by NYFA Learning. Sign up here to receive our bi-weekly newsletter for the latest updates and news about programs and opportunities for artists.

Image: Doctor’s Hours, September 2017, Photo Credit: NYFA Learning

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Business of Art | The Three C’s of Online Marketing

A concise how-to for creating and maintaining your digital presence.

If you’re working in the visual, performing, or literary arts, you probably already know that having a website is crucial to your career. A website functions like an online business card, providing visibility for your work and the opportunity to get your message in front of potential buyers, sellers, supporters, and funders. Social media and email newsletters are also part of the online marketing equation, and are essential tools for furthering your career. No matter the medium, success boils down to what your goals are, who your audience is and where you can find them, and being able to effectively communicate your voice and vision with that audience. Your time is valuable, and determining your marketing strategy is personal to you and what you’re looking to achieve.

In this post, we’re sharing tips from three communications experts who recently joined The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and College Art Association (CAA) for a “Marketing for Artists” panel, as part of their one-day Artist as Entrepreneur program. We’ve distilled advice from Ben Hartley, Executive Director, National Arts Club; Valerie Lynch, a fundraising and strategic planning consultant; and Mara Vlatkovic, an arts marketing and communications professional, that will help you better understand how to focus your online efforts.

Clarity

The panelists agreed that having a clear/identifiable goal is key. Before considering your online presence, ask yourself what you want to achieve from your marketing and where your audience is. If you’re a visual artist, then Instagram may be the platform to focus on; literary artists may consider Twitter, Medium, or other text-based platforms; and performing artists may gravitate towards Instagram (especially the Stories feature) or YouTube.

Defining your success is critical. “If you’re a visual artist who is looking to get a gallery show, you should be attending as many gallery shows as possible and speaking to the people who are there, handing out your card,” said Lynch, underscoring the importance of face-to-face contact. In-person meetings can lead to website visits, social media follows, and e-mail sign-ups if considered thoughtfully.

Knowing who you are as an artist is integral to your practice, and is especially important to how you represent yourself online. Talking about your work--no matter the setting--takes thought and practice. “No one is going to do it for you,” said Hartley. He advised developing an elevator pitch in two short sentences that describes “What your work is, what it deals with, and what it is inspired by.” Vlatkovic suggested looking to your inner circle for help and inspiration. “It’s a challenge for artists to talk person-to-person about their work. Think about whether your friends and family know how to speak about what you do. If not, you may not be communicating properly.”

This mindset can be applied across platforms, from the bio on your website to the language you use in your email newsletters and social media posts. Get feedback from those close to you to determine if you’re on the right track, and use their responses to fine-tune your messaging and visuals and ensure that what you’re communicating best represents you. For examples, refer to the Instagram feeds of Ekaterina Popova, Lilian Martinez, Marc Dennis, Deanna Breiwick, and Amalia Andrade. These artists infuse their posts with personality, which is an essential ingredient to having a successful feed whether you have 100 followers or 1 million.

Consistency

Think about the people that you follow on social media (they don’t need to be artists!). One thing they likely have in common is a consistency in tone, language, and visuals. Raul Gonzalez, a San Antonio-based artist, shows his process, his family, and his sports alliances on his Instagram feed. Through this variety comes consistency, as his followers can expect this sort of content to be shared over time. Some artists choose to stick with one aesthetic. Popova, according to Vlatkovic, “has a very clear visual aesthetic - very pink, very pastel-colored, and she keeps it going throughout her entire profile.” Consider the types of content that you share or that you could potentially share to give your followers an inside perspective into your life and career. Once you decide what platform is right for you, you can work to develop the right kind of content mix for your feed - one that feels authentic to you.

When you commit to a platform, commit to posting with regularity. If someone starts following you on social media or signs up for your e-mail list, they want to hear from you! “Being aware of fatigue is important, but you also do want to have something to say. When using these platforms, know what your goal is!” said Lynch.

Community

Social media is just that - social! Lynch again cites Marc Dennis’ Instagram as an example: “He uses social media not only to let his audience know what’s happening with him professionally as an artist, but also socially.” In this way, he is introducing his followers to new artists, giving them access to industry events from his perspective, and promoting a culture of sharing that is inherent on social media. As we alluded to earlier, online communities and in-person communities are complimentary. During each show, performance artist Taylor Mac (Fellow in Inter-Disciplinary ‘09) passes a hat around and attaches the donated money to specific social causes. “Mac really connects to the broader community and is intimate in conversation whether in person or on social media - people really relate to that,” she added.

Once people are on board with your work as an artist, keep communicating with them. Hartley offered: “Tell them about your process, new works, some of the challenges you’ve been facing, keep the contact going.” E-blasts are one way to keep in touch, and are useful because they provide a direct line to your audience. “If they’re on your email list, they trust you. Maybe you should be telling them about other things that are going on - a different conversation that’s not just about you. Offer them a lens into your world,” Hartley concluded.

- Amy Aronoff, Senior Communications Officer

The Artist as Entrepreneur program was presented through NYFA Learning, which includes professional development for artists and arts administrators. Sign up for NYFA’s free bi-weekly newsletter to receive updates on future programs.

Image: Jen Liu (Fellow in Digital/Electronic Arts ‘17), “Pink Slime Shift (Working Title),” 2017, HD video

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Announcing | NYFA’s New Online Learning Initiative

Explore the fundamental principles of sustainability in the arts from the comfort of your home, studio, or anywhere with Internet access.

The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is pleased to announce its new Online Learning initiative to provide professional development workshops to artists, arts administrators, and arts professionals nationally and internationally through a webinar platform.

Creators in all disciplines can now explore the fundamental principles of sustainability in the arts from anywhere with an Internet connection. As many of our professional development programs are focused on building community, these online sessions also provide virtual networking opportunities to registered participants.

The first series of online workshops will expand on NYFA’s newly-revised second edition of The Profitable Artist (Allworth Press, 2018), and will cover related topics, including strategic planning, finance, law, marketing, and fundraising. Each session in this series costs $25.

How It Works:

Each session lasts for 90 minutes, including the lecture and Q&A.

Each session will be offered on the third Tuesday of each month from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM EST.*

Creatives from around the world can join workshops through our webinar platform or international call-in numbers.

Participants will have access to the presenters during the live sessions, and also to the program materials and recordings after the workshops as long as they register before the session starts.

Registrants will have access to the recordings for six months following the session.*

* Unless otherwise noted.

Save the Dates of Our “NYFA Online Learning: The Profitable Artist” Series!

September 25:  Fundraising workshop with Peter Cobb, Co-Editor of The Profitable Artist; learn more about the workshop and register here to participate.

October 16:  Marketing workshop with Mara Vlatkovic, contributor to the marketing chapter of The Profitable Artist.

November 20: Legal workshop with Elissa D. Hecker, contributor to the legal chapters of The Profitable Artist.

October and November registrations will start six weeks prior to the workshop dates.

This program is part of NYFA Learning, which includes professional development for artists and arts administrators. Sign up for NYFA’s free bi-weekly newsletter to receive updates on future programs.

Image: Gearing up for NYFA’s The Profitable Artist-themed online workshops. Photo Credit: Amy Aronoff for NYFA

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Event | Online Doctor’s Hours for Visual & Multidisciplinary Artists

Monday, June 29 Doctor’s Hours event will offer remote one-on-one consultations with art professionals.

New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) will host the next edition of its popular Doctor’s Hours program, which is designed to provide practical and professional advice from industry professionals, online on Monday, June 29. 

This event will serve Visual and Multidisciplinary artists working in Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Sculpture, Video, Film, Photography, New Media, Multidisciplinary, Performance Art, Socially-Engaged Practices, Folk, and Traditional Art.

Starting Tuesday, June 9 at 11:00 AM EDT, you can register for 25-minute, remote one-on-one appointments with up to three arts professionals to ask questions and receive actionable tips for advancing your arts career.

How Online Doctor's Hours works:

To adopt the online model, each consultant meets six artists over the course of three hours.

Each consultation session is 25 minutes. There will be a three appointment limit per artist.

The Online Doctor's Hours sessions take place through the Zoom platform. Please download the Zoom app before the event date to participate.

Title: Online Doctor’s Hours for Visual and Multidisciplinary Artists Program Date and Time: Monday, June 29, 2020, 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM EDT, unless otherwise noted below Location: Online through Zoom*  Cost: $25 per 25-minute appointment; three appointment limit per artist Register: The event is fully booked, please click here to sign up for the waiting list to be informed of any cancellations.

Can’t join us? You can book a one-on-one remote consultation with arts professionals via NYFA Coaching.

To make the most of your “Online Doctor’s Hours” appointment, please read the entire confirmation email you receive after completing your registration; it includes all the details you need for your session.

*We are able to offer this support via phone if you are unable to access reliable internet service.

For questions, email learning@nyfa.org.

Consultants

Ylinka Barotto, Associate Curator, Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University As Associate Curator, Barotto is responsible for developing, organizing, and executing visual art exhibitions that support Moody's mission of fostering interdisciplinary conversation. Barotto is also involved in the expansion of Rice Public Art through commissions of site-specific work and is responsible for conceptualizing and coordinating the “Platform” and “Off the Wall” series. Before joining the Moody, Barotto served as Assistant Curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum where she worked on major modern and postwar retrospectives and contemporary exhibitions. She helped shape the Guggenheim’s permanent collection through acquisitions of emerging artists through the Young Collectors Council and hosted and moderated conversations between contemporary artists, activists, and journalists on topics such as feminism, activism, identity, and representation for the Guggenheim Public Program. Barotto received a MA degree in curatorial studies at Accademia delle Belle Arti di Brera in Milan, Italy.

Alaina Claire Feldman, Director, Sidney Mishkin Gallery at CUNY’s Baruch College* Feldman is the new Director and Curator of the Mishkin Gallery at Baruch College (CUNY), where she also teaches in the MA Arts Administration program. Recent exhibitions include The Aesthetics of Learning, Minerva Cuevas: Disidencia, and Lamin Fofana: BLUES.

*Please note appointment times for this consultant will be between 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM on Monday, June 29.

Gabriel de Guzman, Curator & Director of Exhibitions, Smack Mellon Gallery At Smack Mellon, de Guzman organizes group and solo exhibitions that feature emerging and under-recognized mid-career artists whose work often explores critical, socially relevant issues. Before joining Smack Mellon’s staff in 2017, de Guzman was the Curator of Visual Arts at Wave Hill, organizing solo projects for emerging artists as well as thematic group exhibitions. As a guest curator, he has presented shows at BronxArtSpace, Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, Dyckman Farmhouse Museum, Rush Arts Gallery, En Foco at Andrew Freedman Home, the Affordable Art Fair New York, Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, and the Bronx Museum's 2013 AIM Biennial. Prior to Wave Hill, he was a curatorial assistant at The Jewish Museum. His essays have been published in Nueva Luz: Photographic Journal and in catalogues for the Arsenal Gallery at Central Park, Kenise Barnes Fine Art, and the art institutions mentioned above. He earned a MA degree in art history from Hunter College and a BA degree in art history from the University of Virginia.

DJ Hellerman, Curator of Art & Programs, Everson Museum of Art A few of Hellerman’s recent curatorial productions include solo exhibitions Yoko Ono: Remembering the Future, Edie Fake: Structures Shift, and Jeff Donaldson: Dig. Recent theme-based group exhibitions include: Civic Virtue: all over the floor; Seen & Heard; Of Land & Local, an annual place-based exhibition about art and the environment; and Taking Pictures, an exhibition exploring how artists associated with the Pictures Generation anticipated and recently turned their critical attention to digital networks used in the dissemination and consumption of images. Hellerman has spoken at conferences across the country, and has written extensively on American Art, popular culture, and the post-war American City. Prior to his position in Syracuse, Hellerman served as Curator and Director of Exhibitions at Burlington City Arts. A native of Ohio, Hellerman began curating and educating people about art while helping Progressive Insurance build a collection of contemporary art designed to encourage innovation and change. He received his MA degree in Art History from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH and his BA degree in English and Philosophy from Lake Erie College in Painesville, OH. He loves live music and literature as much as he enjoys visual art.

Lilly Hern-Fondation, Programs Manager, CUE Art Foundation Hern-Fondation is a Brooklyn-based artist and writer and the Programs Manager at CUE Art Foundation, a nonprofit art space located in Manhattan that is dedicated to exhibitions, arts education, art criticism, and public programming. Prior to CUE, she served as Assistant Director of Freight+Volume on the Lower East Side, as co-founder and co-director of Nightwood Exhibits in Chicago, and as Curatorial Fellow at SAIC. Originally from Los Angeles, Hern-Fondation studied literature and photography at the University of Washington, Seattle and received her MFA degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Eileen Jeng Lynch, Curator, Wave Hill At Wave Hill, Jeng Lynch organizes the Sunroom Project Space for emerging artists, co-curates exhibitions in Glyndor Gallery, and is involved in all aspects of visual arts programming including publications and the annual Winter Workspace program. Recent exhibitions at Wave Hill include Figuring the Floral, Emily Oliveira: Mundo Irrealis (Wish You Were Here), Duy Hoàng: Interarboreal, Bahar Behbahani: All water has a perfect memory, and Ngoc Minh Ngo: Wave Hill Florilegium. Jeng Lynch is also the Founder of Neumeraki, which collaborates with artists, organizations, and galleries on curatorial, consulting, writing, and editing projects. Independent curatorial projects include exhibitions at The Yard: City Hall Park, Trestle Gallery, LMAKbooks+design, Sperone Westwater, Lesley Heller Workspace, Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, Garis & Hahn, and Radiator Gallery, among others. In 2017, Jeng Lynch initiated the ongoing Give Voice Postcard Project. She has contributed to Two Coats of Paint and On-Verge. Previously, Jeng Lynch worked at RxArt, Sperone Westwater, and the Art Institute of Chicago in the Department of Contemporary Art. She earned her MA degree in Arts Administration and Policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and BA degree in Art History and Advertising from Syracuse University.

Larry Ossei-Mensah, Independent Curator and Cultural Critic, Co-founder of ARTNOIR* Ossei-Mensah uses contemporary art as a vehicle to redefine how we see ourselves and the world around us. The Ghanaian-American curator and cultural critic has organized exhibitions and programs at commercial and nonprofit spaces around the globe from New York City to Rome featuring artists such as Firelei Baez, Allison Janae Hamilton, Brendan Fernades, Ebony G. Patterson, Glenn Kaino, and Stanley Whitney to name a few. Moreover, Ossei-Mensah has actively documented cultural happenings featuring the most dynamic visual artists working today such as Derrick Adams, Mickalene Thomas, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Federico Solmi, and Kehinde Wiley.

Ossei-Mensah is also the co-founder of ARTNOIR, a 501c3 and global collective of culturalists who design multimodal experiences aimed to engage this generation’s dynamic and diverse creative class. Ossei-Mensah is a contributor to the first ever Ghanaian Pavilion for the 2019 Venice Biennial, with an essay on the work of visual artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Ossei-Mensah is the former Susanne Feld Hilberry Senior Curator at MOCAD in Detroit. He recently co-curated with Dexter Wimberly the critically-acclaimed exhibition at MOAD in San Francisco Coffee, Rhum, Sugar, Gold: A Postcolonial Paradox in 2019. Ossei-Mensah currently serves as guest curator at Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Rudin Family Gallery. He also will be co-curating with Omsk Social Club the 7th Athens Biennale in Athens, Greece. Ossei-Mensah has had recent profiles in such publications including The New York Times, Artsy, and Cultured Magazine, which named him one of seven curators to watch in 2019. Follow him on Instagram/Twitter at @youngglobal or www.larryosseimensah.com.

*Please note appointment times for this consultant will be between 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM on Monday, June 29.

Alice Russotti, Curator, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) As Curator at LMCC, Russotti is focused on programming at the Arts Center at Governors Island and public art partnerships with LMCC’s downtown supporters. Originally from London, Russotti graduated from high school in Costa Rica and has since lived in New York City, London, and Singapore. She started her career in the arts on the commercial side, first at Christie’s, New York, and then with Sotheby’s, London, in the Post-War & Contemporary department. Finding the secondary market’s lack of interaction with artists and their process frustrating, she started working at The Vinyl Factory, London, curating and producing multimedia, cross-disciplinary installations in the Brewer Street Car Park that were free and open to the public. Russotti holds a BA degree from Brown University in Art History and a MA degree from the Sotheby’s Institute in Contemporary Art and Theory.

This program is presented by NYFA Learning. Sign up here to receive NYFA News, a bi-weekly organizational email for upcoming awards, resources & professional development. NYFA Learning also offers the monthly free Con Edison Immigrant Artist Program (IAP) Newsletter, if you are interested in opportunities, professional development, events, tips and advice specific to immigrant artists. 

Image Detail: Mark Ferguson (Fellow in Printmaking/Drawing/Book Arts ’17); NYFA Artist's Statement; 2017; graphite, crayon, tape on synthetic paper

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Event | Online Doctor’s Hours for Visual & Multidisciplinary Artists

Monday, April 27 Doctor’s Hours event will offer remote one-on-one individual consultations with industry professionals.

New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) will host the next edition of its popular Doctor’s Hours program, which is designed to provide practical and professional advice from industry professionals, online on Monday, April 27. 

It will serve Visual and Multidisciplinary artists working in Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Sculpture, Video, Film, Photography, New Media, Multidisciplinary, Performance Art, Socially-Engaged Practices, Folk, and Traditional Art. 

Starting Tuesday, April 7 at 11:00 AM EDT, you can register for 25-minute, remote one-on-one appointments with up to three arts professionals to ask questions and receive actionable tips for advancing your arts career. Please note that a few of these time-slots will be reserved for students and artists at The Art Students League of New York, as part of an ongoing partnership with NYFA. 

How Online Doctor's Hours works:

To adopt the online model, each consultant will meet with six artists over the course of three hours.

Each consultation session is 25 minutes long. There is a three appointment limit per artist.

The Online Doctor's Hours sessions take place through the Zoom platform. Please download the Zoom app before the event date to participate.

Title: Online Doctor’s Hours for Visual and Multidisciplinary Artists Program Date and Time: Monday, April 27, 2019, 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM EDT Location: Online through Zoom* Cost: $25 per 25-minute appointment; three appointment limit per artist Register: Register here.

Can’t join us? You can book a remote one-on-one consultation with arts professionals via NYFA Coaching.

To make the most of your Online Doctor’s Hours appointment, please read the entire confirmation email you receive after completing your registration; it includes all the details you need for your session.

*We are able to offer this support via phone if you are unable to access reliable internet service.

For questions, email learning@nyfa.org.

Consultants

Daniel Aycock, Founder and Director, Front Room Gallery  Aycock established The Front Room Gallery in New York in 1999. The space is dedicated to exhibiting artwork by emerging and mid-career artists, with a concentration in photography as well as drawing, conceptual art, video, audio art, sculpture, and installation. The gallery presents work that is innovative in practice and concept, challenging social perceptions while establishing context within the familiar. Aycock has curated exhibitions internationally at universities, museums, artist’s residencies, and art fairs. He has been a guest juror/critic at Association of Media Photographers (ASMP), NY; School of Visual Arts (SVA), NY; International Studio Curatorial Project (ISCP), NY; FotoFest, TX; and many others. In 2001, he started WAGMAG, Brooklyn Art Guide, a monthly printed publication listing all of the arts institutions in Brooklyn, NY. He received his BFA degree in Photography from Texas Tech University and his Master’s Degree from SVA.

Heather Bhandari, Independent Curator, Co-Founder of The Remix  In addition to her work as an independent curator and co-founder of the project-based curatorial team and podcast, The Remix, Bhandari is an adjunct lecturer at Brown University where she teaches professional practice to visual arts majors and is Partner and Program Director of Art World Conference (AWC), a business and financial literacy conference for visual artists which debuted in New York City in April of 2019 and Los Angeles in February of 2020. The second edition of her book, ART/WORK, was published by Simon and Schuster in October of 2017. Bhandari is on the board of directors of visual arts at Art Omi, an artist residency in Ghent, NY, and is on the advisory board of Trestle Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. She was on the board of NURTUREart for nearly a decade. From 2000 to 2016 she was a director of Mixed Greens, a commercial gallery in Chelsea where she curated over 100 exhibitions while managing a roster of nearly two-dozen emerging to mid-career artists. Most recently, she was the Director of Exhibitions at Smack Mellon, a nonprofit in Brooklyn, NY. Recent curatorial projects include a solo exhibition of Keith Lemley’s work at Urban Glass in Brooklyn, NY and the group exhibition Fertile Ground at the David Winton Bell Gallery in Providence, RI, that included work by Maria Berrio, Zoë Charlton, and Joiri Minaya. She and her AWC co-organizer Dexter Wimberly were recently listed in the Observer's "Arts Power 50: Changemakers Shaping the Art World in 2019." Bhandari received a BA degree from Brown University and a MFA degree from Pennsylvania State University. Her career began at contemporary galleries Sonnabend and Lehmann Maupin, both in New York.

Rachel Gladfelter, Director, Pace Prints  As Director of Pace Prints in Chelsea, Gladfelter has coordinated projects from concept to exhibition by Keith Haring, Jon Kessler, and Shepard Fairey, among others. An expert on print publishing, printmaking, and papermaking, she has lectured and taught classes on the subject extensively. She has also curated and juried independent exhibitions in New York and abroad. Prior to her 12-year tenure with Pace Prints, she was the Studio Director at Dieu Donné where she collaborated with contemporary artists in handmade paper.

Peter Gynd, Gallery Director, Lesley Heller Gallery  Gynd is a fifth generation artist and independent curator from Vancouver, Canada. He studied at the Alberta College of Art and Design and has exhibited in both Canada and the US. Notable exhibitions curated by Gynd include a permanent exhibition at the Foundation Center, NY; an acclaimed two-person presentation at SPRING/BREAK Art Show, NY; and group exhibitions at Present Company, NY; NARS Foundation, NY; the Northside Festival, NY; Lesley Heller Workspace, NY; and at the Dynamo Arts Association, Vancouver. Gynd’s exhibitions have been featured in Hyperallergic, The Carnegie Reporter, Blouin Artinfo, and Gothamist. He has been a guest critic at Residencies Unlimited, Kunstraum, and ChaNorth Artist Residency; a consultant for NYFA’s Doctors Hours program; guest lecturer at Pratt Institute; and a guest juror at 440 Gallery, Equity Gallery, and Sweet Lorraine Gallery. Recent projects include curating a solo exhibition of sculptural works by Jody MacDonald at Radiator Gallery and serving as a guest juror for the second edition of the Art Fair 14C.

Nicole Kaack, Associate Director, A.I.R. Gallery A.I.R. Gallery is a non-profit arts organization founded in 1972 to support the work of women-identifying and non-binary artists. Independent of her role at A.I.R. Gallery, Kaack is an active curator and critic. She has organized exhibitions and programs at The Kitchen, Hunter College, CRUSH CURATORIAL / HESSE FLATOW, and Small Editions, among other spaces. Kaack's writing has been published by Whitehot Magazine, artcritical, Art Viewer, SFAQ / NYAQ / AQ, Artforum, The Brooklyn Rail, and Sound American. Kaack is co-founder of the publishing platforms prompt: and Not Nothing.

Isabella Kapur, Curatorial Assistant, The Drawing Center  During her time with The Drawing Center, Kapur has co-curated exhibitions including As If: Alternative Histories From Then to Now (2019) and The Pencil Is a Key: Drawings by Incarcerated Artists (2019–2020) and helped organize Edie Fake: Labyrinth (2019–2020), and, most recently, Curtis Talwst Santiago: Can’t I Alter. She has also worked as an art historian and researcher with The Brooklyn Museum’s “ASK Brooklyn Museum” program.

Jamie Stevens, Curator, Artists Space  In addition to his work at Artists Space, Stevens has held curatorial positions at CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco; Cubitt Gallery, London; Chisenhale Gallery, London; and has served as a member of the acquisitions committee for the British Council Collection of Contemporary Art. He is currently a candidate in the Respecialization Program at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, New York.

Yulia Topchiy, Independent Curator of Contemporary Art & Co-Founder, Assembly Room  Topchiy specializes in art curation, creating public programming initiatives, event production, and performances, with a passion for creating intimate, immersive, original and engaging experiences of art. Topchly works with an extensive network of emerging and established artists in all fields of practice and advises galleries, non-profits, art museums, and independent curators on special projects and exhibitions.

Monika Wuhrer, Curator and Director, Open Source Gallery  Wuhrer is an Austrian artist, curator, and director of Open Source Gallery. After studying in Milan, Italy, Wuhrer returned to her native country where she completed her Masters of Arts in sculpture from the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. She moved to New York in 1999 and found Open Source Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. Open Source Gallery is an arts-based non-profit organization inspired by the open source movement. In the spirit of this free exchange of knowledge, they provide a forum where art intersects with the community and the world at large.

This program is presented by NYFA Learning. Sign up here to receive NYFA News, a bi-weekly organizational email for upcoming awards, resources & professional development. NYFA Learning also offers the monthly free Con Edison Immigrant Artist Program (IAP) Newsletter, if you are interested in opportunities, professional development, events, tips and advice specific to immigrant artists. 

Image: Amy Aronoff for NYFA

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Event | Doctor’s Hours for Visual & Multidisciplinary Artists with Museum Curators and Professionals

This Monday, February 24 event will offer one-on-one individual consultations with art professionals.

Are you a visual or multidisciplinary artist in need of some career advice? New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is pleased to announce its first Doctor’s Hours program in 2020. The February 24 event serves Visual and Multidisciplinary Artists (Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Sculpture, Video, Film, Photography, New Media, Multidisciplinary, Performance Art, Socially-Engaged Practices, Folk, and Traditional Art) and is designed to provide artists with practical and professional advice from museum curators and arts professionals. Starting Monday, February 3 at 11:00 AM EST, you can register for 20-minute, one-on-one appointments with up to three arts professionals to ask questions and receive actionable tips for advancing your arts career.

Title: Doctor’s Hours for Visual and Multidisciplinary Artists with Museum Curators and Professionals Program Date and Time: Monday, February 24, 2020, 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM EST Location: The New York Foundation for the Arts, 20 Jay Street, Suite 740, Brooklyn NY, 11201 Cost: $38 per 20-minute appointment; three appointment limit per artist Register: This event is at capacity. Please fill out this form to add your name to the waitlist.

To make the most of your “Doctor’s Hours” appointment, read our Tips & FAQs. For questions, email learning@nyfa.org.

Can’t join us on February 24? You can book a one-on-one consultation with arts professionals, in-person or remotely, via NYFA Coaching.

*For all regular participants, please note that we have a new registration platform. Please read the instructions carefully before beginning your registration.

Consultants

Jeanette Bisschops, Curatorial Apprentice, New Museum Bisschops, a Dutch curator and writer who specializes in time-based media, recently joined New Museum as a curatorial apprentice. Bisschops is particularly interested in expanding and criticizing existing narratives and structures in the art world and working with lesser-known or new voices. She is based in New York and Amsterdam, and is currently working towards the 2021 New Museum Triennial with Margot Norton and Jamillah James and organizing the upcoming “Screen Series.” 

Bisschops formerly served as assistant curator for time-based media at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, where she was involved with the conservation, acquisition, and display of the museum’s time-based media collection. She assisted with the latest edition of the museum’s biannual Municipal Art Acquisitions, titled Freedom of Movement, and organized performances by Michele Rizzo and Rory Pilgrim. Her interest in new technologies culminated in two of her most recent exhibitions: Untouched Intimacies and ART FWRD: On Technology.

Rachel Federman, Associate Curator, Modern & Contemporary Drawings, The Morgan Library & Museum Federman's recent projects include By Any Means: Contemporary Drawings from the Morgan and Drawing the Curtain: Maurice Sendak’s Designs for Opera and Ballet (catalog). Before joining the Morgan, she was Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where she helped organize the retrospective Bruce Conner: It’s All True. She has published essays on Conner, Paul McCarthy, Allen Ruppersberg, and Andy Warhol, among others. She holds a PhD degree from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.

Larissa Harris, Curator, Queens Museum of Art Harris' exhibitions at Queens Museum include Red Lines Housing Crisis Learning Center, a project on home finance by artist and urban designer Damon Rich; The Curse of Bigness, which featured major works by Survival Research Laboratories, J. Morgan Puett, and Dexter Sinister, among others; the first U.S. solo presentation of Korean video and performance artist Sung Hwan Kim; 13 Most Wanted Men: Andy Warhol and the 1964 World's Fair (with Nicholas Chambers); and a 50-year survey of the work of Mierle Laderman Ukeles (with Patti Philips). Upcoming is a group exhibition titled After the Plaster Foundation and Ulrike Muller's first New York museum presentation, a new commission titled The Conference of the Animals (organized with Sophia Lucas), both opening April 5, 2020.

David Horowitz, Assistant Curator, Modern & Contemporary Drawings, Guggenheim Museum Since joining the Guggenheim’s curatorial department in 2015, Horowitz has contributed to a number of special exhibitions and supported the management of the museum’s permanent collection. He is the curator of Marking Time: Process in Minimal Abstraction (2019–20) and co-curator of R. H. Quaytman + ×, Chapter 34 (2018–19). Additionally, he worked closely on Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future (2018–19) and Agnes Martin (2016–17), as well as Guggenheim Collection: Brancusi (2017–20) and Guggenheim Collection: Early Modernism (2016–17). Horowitz also regularly assists in the continued care and stewardship of the permanent collection. While mostly focused on the postwar period, he has conducted research on works from all parts of the museum’s holdings. He holds a BA degree in English language and literature from the University of Maryland, College Park, and an interdisciplinary MLA degree from Johns Hopkins University. He is currently pursuing a MA degree in art history at Hunter College.

Kelly Long, Curatorial Assistant, Whitney Museum of American Art Long has supported such Whitney Museum exhibitions as Hélio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium and Jimmie Durham: At the Center of the World, and was a part of the curatorial team that organized Rachel Harrison Life Hack, the artist’s first full-scale survey exhibition. She is a member of the Whitney’s Equity and Inclusion Working Group, and helps to manage the museum’s Photography Acquisitions Committee.

Prior to moving to New York, Long achieved PhD Candidacy at the University of Rochester, where her research focused on the engagement of postmodern and contemporary art with housing, exploring notions of being and belonging, access, and ownership in the art of our time. Her published works include catalogue essays for Gail Thacker: Fugitive Moments (2019) and Chiharu Shiota: The Hand Lines (2014). She was an invited speaker at the Frick Collection and the Institute of Fine Arts’ Annual Symposium on the History of Art in 2015. Long holds a MA degree in Visual and Cultural Studies from the University of Rochester and a BA degree in Art History from Vassar College, with a minor in Women’s Studies.

Jocelyn Miller, Curatorial Associate and Editorial Manager, MoMA PS1 Miller has been a member of MoMA PS1's curatorial team since 2011. She is currently organizing the upcoming exhibition Julie Becker: I must create a Master Piece to pay the Rent, and recently organized Elena Lopez Riera: Those Who Desire (2019); Maria Lassnig: New York Films 1970-1980 and Body Armor (both 2018); Past Skin (2017); and Meriem Bennani: FLY (2016). She also organized Projects 106: Martine Syms at The Museum of Modern Art (2017). She has co-organized solo exhibitions with Titus Kaphar, Reza Abdoh, Naeem Mohaiemen, Ian Cheng, Mark Leckey, Cao Fei and Simon Denny, as well as career retrospectives of the artists Maria Lassnig and James Lee Byars, the latter both at MoMA PS1 and Museo Jumex, Mexico City. She also serves as Editorial Manager for MoMA PS1's curatorial department, overseeing museum publications, and served as Editor for the 2015 Greater New York “Readers series.” She received her BA degree in Comparative Literature from Princeton University.  

Ana Torok, Curatorial Assistant, Drawings and Prints, The Museum of Modern Art Torok is a curator and art historian based in New York City, specializing in postminimal and conceptual art of the 1960s and 1970s. She earned her MA degree in Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art and her BA degree from Barnard College, Columbia University. Before joining The Museum of Modern Art, she worked in the curatorial departments of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art, while organizing exhibitions independently.

Lauren Argentina Zelaya, Director of Public Programs, Brooklyn Museum Zelaya joined Brooklyn Museum as a Museum Education and Public Programs Fellow in 2012, becoming a full-time staff member in 2015. As Director of Public Programs, Zelaya curates and produces First Saturdays and other free and low-cost public programs that invite more than 150,000 visitors per year to engage with the museum’s special exhibitions and collections in new and unexpected ways. As a curator, advocate, and educator, Zelaya is committed to collaborating with emerging artists and honoring voices in our communities that are often marginalized, with a focus on film and performance, and creating programming for and with LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities. Most recently, she co-curated the exhibition Nobody Promised You Tomorrow: Art 50 Years After Stonewall. Other projects include “Feminist Film Night,” “Cuerpxs Radicales: Radical Bodies in Performance,” and “Black Queer Brooklyn on Film.” Previously, she worked in education at the Queens Museum and the Museum of the Moving Image, and with emerging artists in Queens as a program coordinator with the Queens Council on the Arts. Zelaya participated in the Tate Intensive (2019) and New York Foundation for the Arts’ Emerging Leaders Program (2018), and was named one of Brooklyn Magazine's "30 Under 30" in 2018.

This program is presented by NYFA Learning. Sign up here to receive NYFA News, a bi-weekly organizational email for upcoming awards, resources, and professional development. NYFA Learning also offers the monthly Con Edison Immigrant Artist Program (IAP) Newsletter if you are interested in opportunities, professional development, events, and tips and advice specific to immigrant artists.

Image: Doctor’s Hours, June 2019, Photo Credit: NYFA Learning

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Business of Art | Protect Your Work from Natural Disasters

A disaster plan is essential for a safe and sustainable creative practice.

At New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), we strive to empower artists to apply business principles to their creative careers with the goal of supporting their work and growing resources for their projects over the long haul. As winter weather impacts several areas in the country, and natural disasters, including tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes, remain a threat for many communities, businesses are updating their disaster plans, and we believe strongly that artists should, too. A disaster plan is essential for any artist looking to build and maintain a safe and sustainable creative practice.

This post is part of an ongoing series on how artists can both prepare for and recover from emergencies of all kinds. We recently wrote about how to protect your work from flooding. While the focus of this post is natural disasters, we’ll introduce general principles that can be applied to other types of emergencies. Please check our blog for future posts and visit the many resources included at the bottom of this article.

Best practices for creating an artist-centered disaster plan include the following: (1) know your risks, (2) document your work and safeguard your records, and (3) get appropriately insured.

Know Your Risks

Learn the weather-related risks to the geographic region in which you live and/or work, have an evacuation plan and/or safe space for yourself and others, and sign up to receive emergency alerts and notifications with your township or county. FEMA has an interactive map to identify flood zones, this resource from the EPA shows historical hurricane tracks and strike frequency, and you can also contact your local authorities to understand potential hazards and resources that are in place.

Once you are aware of the weather-related risks to the region, check your building, your materials, and storage spaces for possible problem areas. The CERF+ Studio Safety Guide is an excellent resource to understand the risks associated with your surroundings, and can be adapted for non-visual artists. If you work in an area that is prone to snowstorms or extreme cold, make sure your space is properly insulated and learn how to keep pipes from freezing. For artists working in areas with a moderate-to-high risk of earthquakes, store your work, along with heavy or breakable items, on low shelves and use anchors to secure bookcases and other storage to the walls. If you are worried about hurricane damage, install permanent storm shutters if possible, and declutter drains and gutters.

Document Your Work and Safeguard Your Records

Depending on the potential risks associated with your workspace and/or geographic location, you’ll want to store your most important records and/or work appropriately: not in a basement or directly on the floor, in waterproof containers when possible and away from light, and maintain a digital documentation of them. Visual artists should get in the habit of taking photographs of completed work. Performance artists and/or writers should maintain electronic copies of work, not just on a hard drive, but also in a removable flash or external hard drive in a fireproof and waterproof box. We also suggest potentially using a cloud-based service like Google Drive for extra security. Make regular back-ups.

As part of your digital inventory of work, all artists should scan and save important documents directly related to your creative practice, such as original drafts of writing with marginalia or promotional materials for shows, as well as documents related to the business side of your practice, including receipts, grant award letters, and/or other tax and legal information. An inventory is important both for your artistic legacy as well as it is often necessary when applying for post-disaster emergency funding or when submitting an insurance claim.

If you don’t have a scanner, you can download a free scanner app on your phone, such as Adobe Scan, which enables you to take photos and turn them into PDFs. Dance/USA and CERF+ both offer template artist inventories that you can download for free.

Get Appropriately Insured

Most homeowners or renters insurance does not cover losses related to your creative practice even if you work from home because these items are considered “business property.” You’ll need either an in-home business owner’s policy, a business rider to your existing insurance plan, or a separate business insurance policy. Your creative career is a business and while you’ll want to avoid unnecessary coverage, you do want to protect it and not take the risk of being uninsured.

Talk to your insurance agent and make sure that your insurance covers risks associated with your geographic location. Losses due to floods and earthquakes, for example, are not included in standard homeowners, renters, or business insurance and require additional policies. Be wary of exclusions, and don’t be shy about asking your insurance agent about them.

Additional Resources

There are several ways to approach disaster planning: you could set aside a full day over the weekend to review risks to your workspace, repair problem areas, document your work, and get insurance. Alternatively, you could check off one step at a time over several weeks. Below are additional resources to aid you in your planning. As a general rule, disaster planning usually requires an initial time commitment when starting from scratch, but once you have the structures in place and abide by them, you can focus on making art and building your creative career.

Ready.gov Disaster Plan site with disaster-specific information for before, during, and after an emergency

FEMA Safeguard Critical Documents and Valuables checklist

CERF+ Studio Protector portal and Insurance Hub

Dance/USA Artist’s Legacy Toolkit

Joan Mitchell Foundation’s Archive Planning Workbook for Visual Artists

NYFA.org Emergency Resources section

American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works: Wiki for Preservation of Time-Based and Electronic Media

Preparedness resources for a variety of emergencies compiled by the National Coalition for Arts’ Preparedness & Emergency Response (NCAPER) 

- Maria Villafranca, NYFA Consultant and NYFA Coach

Image: Teressa Valla; Embrace the Reality; 2012; collage, twig sandpaper, and watercolor

Visit NYFA’s full list of emergency resources and visit NYFA Source, a free directory of over 12,000 opportunities, grants, and services for individual artists nationwide. This post is the second in a series of articles, Protect Your Work, and will be supplemented with a How to Recover from an Emergency series.

You can find more articles on preparedness and other arts career topics by visiting the Business of Art section of NYFA’s website. Sign up for NYFA News and receive artist resources and upcoming events straight to your inbox.

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Event | Doctor’s Hours for Visual, Multidisciplinary, and New Media Artists

This Monday, November 4 event will offer one-on-one consultations with industry professionals.

Are you a visual or multidisciplinary artist in need of some career advice? The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is pleased to announce an upcoming session of Doctor’s Hours for Visual, Multidisciplinary, and New Media Artists, a program designed to provide artists with practical and professional advice from arts consultants. Artists who work in Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Sculpture, Video, Film, Photography, New Media, Multidisciplinary, Performance Art, Socially-Engaged Practices, Folk, and Traditional Art are encouraged to participate.

Starting Monday, October 14 at 11:00 AM, you can register for 20-minute, one-on-one appointments with up to three arts professionals to ask questions and receive actionable tips for advancing your arts career.

Title: Doctor’s Hours for Visual, Multidisciplinary, and New Media Artists Program Date and Time: Monday, November 4, 2019, 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM Location: The New York Foundation for the Arts, 20 Jay Street, Suite 740, Brooklyn NY, 11201  Cost: $38 per 20-minute appointment; three appointments limit per artist Register: Please click here to register.

To make the most of your “Doctor’s Hours” appointment, read our Tips & FAQs. For questions, email learning@nyfa.org.

Can’t join us in November? You can book a one-on-one remote consultation session via Doctor’s Hours On Call. Review the bios of Sarah Hart Corpron, Michelle Levy, and Maria Villafranca, and check their availability in October to schedule your appointment.

Consultants

Alaina Claire Feldman, Director and Curator, Mishkin Gallery at the City University of New York (CUNY) Baruch College Feldman recently organized the exhibitions The Aesthetics of Learning, Lise Soskolne: The Work, and Minerva Cuevas: Disidencia as Director and Curator of the Mishkin Gallery at CUNY’s Baruch College. From 2011-2018, she was Director of Exhibitions at Independent Curators International (ICI) and curated the traveling exhibition The Ocean After Nature as well as edited the subsequent catalogue. She was the Managing Editor of ICI’s Sourcebook Series and produced artist-centric publications. Her projects have included long-term support of artists, collectives, archives, and educational opportunities, particularly those beyond the traditional Western cannon. Feldman was previously an editor at the French arts journal May Revue. As a writer, her work has been published in Afterall, Flash Art, The Graduate Center Latinx Studies Guide, and in catalogues and anthologies for museums around the world. Feldman has lectured and taught at the University of Porto, The School of Visual Arts, NYU, Center for Feminist Pedagogy, and with ICI’s Curatorial Intensive. She was the 2017 Annual Beckwith Lecturer at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts Tufts, Boston. She is a member of the International Advisory Board of Casa S. Roque – Centro de Arte (CSR), Portugal.

Rachel Gugelberger, Curator, Residency Unlimited Gugelberger is a cultural producer with a focus on place-based practices around social, cultural, and civic issues. Projects include (after)care, a site-specific exhibition in a former emergency waiting room at Kings County Hospital in East Flatbush, Brooklyn (2019); the inaugural Southeast Queens Biennial (2018); Jameco Exchange, a site-responsive exhibition and socially-engaged education platform in a vacant storefront in Jamaica, Queens (2016); and Hold These Truths (2017) and Bring in the Reality (2015), exhibitions that presented works at the intersection of activism and storytelling at the Nathan Cummings Foundation in Manhattan. Gugelberger is the co-founder of “1@111,” a series of process-oriented discussions that focus on a single work, curatorial premise, or proposition. Independent curatorial projects have focused on the intersection of information, data, and art, including: Once Upon a Time There was the End, the Center for Book Arts, New York, NY; Data Deluge, Ballroom Marfa, TX; and Library Science, Artspace, New Haven, CT. She is the former curator at No Longer Empty (NLE), a non-profit organization that curates site-responsive and community-centered exhibitions, education, and programs in unique spaces, and also served as director of the NLE Curatorial Lab program. Gugelberger has served as co-director of Sara Meltzer Gallery and curator at Exit Art in New York, where she curated the organization’s final exhibitions Every Exit Is an Entrance: 30 Years of Exit Art and Collective/Performative (co-curator). Gugelberger holds an M.A. degree in Curatorial Studies in Contemporary Art and Culture from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, NY.

Peter Gynd, Director, Lesley Heller Gallery Gynd is an independent curator, fifth generation artist, and the director at Lesley Heller Gallery in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Originally from Vancouver, Canada, Gynd studied at the Alberta College of Art and Design and has exhibited in both Canada and the U.S. Notable exhibitions curated by Gynd include a permanent exhibition at the Foundation Center, NY; an acclaimed two-person presentation at SPRING/BREAK Art Show (2015); and group exhibitions at Present Company, NY; NARS Foundation, NY; the Northside Festival, NY; Lesley Heller Workspace, NY; and at the Dynamo Arts Association, Vancouver Canada. Gynd’s exhibitions have been featured in Hyperallergic, The Carnegie Reporter, Blouin Artinfo, and Gothamist. Gynd has been a guest visitor at Residencies Unlimited, Kunstraum, and ChaNorth Artist Residency, and a guest juror at 440 Gallery and Sweet Lorraine Gallery.

Sally Eaves Hughes, Curatorial Assistant, Dia Art Foundation Hughes is a curator specializing in contemporary art across the Americas. As the Curatorial Assistant at Dia Art Foundation, she has assisted on exhibitions of work by Dan Flavin, Sam Gilliam, Renata Lucas, Dorothea Rockburne, and Andy Warhol, as well as the Artists on Artists Lecture Series. Previously, Hughes held positions at numerous institutions in New York, Boston, and Chicago, including David Zwirner, The Whitney Museum of American Art, MIT’s art department, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Hughes holds an M.A. degree in Modern and Contemporary Art: Critical and Curatorial Studies (MODA) from Columbia University.

Eileen Jeng Lynch, Curator, Wave Hill As Curator of Visual Arts at Wave Hill, Jeng Lynch organizes the Sunroom Project Space for emerging artists, co-curates exhibitions in Glyndor Gallery, and is involved in all aspects of visual arts programming, including publications and the annual Winter Workspace program. Current and recent exhibitions at Wave Hill include Figuring the Floral, Emily Oliveira: Mundo Irrealis (Wish You Were Here), Duy Hoàng: Interarboreal, Bahar Behbahani: All water has a perfect memory., and Ngoc Minh Ngo: Wave Hill Florilegium. Jeng Lynch is also the founder of Neumeraki, which collaborates with artists, organizations, and galleries on curatorial, consulting, writing, and editing projects. Independent curatorial projects include exhibitions at The Yard: City Hall Park, Trestle Gallery, LMAKbooks+design, Sperone Westwater, Lesley Heller Workspace, Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs, Garis & Hahn, and Radiator Gallery. In 2017, Jeng Lynch initiated the ongoing grassroots, multi-state advocacy initiative “Give Voice” Postcard Project. She has contributed to Two Coats of Paint and On-Verge. Previously, Jeng Lynch worked at RxArt, Sperone Westwater, and the Art Institute of Chicago in the Department of Contemporary Art. She earned a M.A. degree in Arts Administration and Policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a B.A. degree in Art History and Advertising from Syracuse University.

Matthew Lyons, Curator, The Kitchen Lyons has organized numerous exhibitions, performances, and other programs at The Kitchen since 2005. Recent work includes projects with Moriah Evans, Chitra Ganesh, Trajal Harrell, nora chipaumire, Xaviera Simmons, Sarah Michelson, Aki Sasamoto, Constance DeJong, Kembra Pfahler, and Katherine Hubbard. Upcoming work includes projects with Lauren Bakst and Ka Baird. He’s worked on group exhibitions The Rehearsal, The View from a Volcano: The Kitchen’s Soho Years 1971-1985, One Minute More, Just Kick It Till It Breaks (catalog), Between Thought and Sound: Graphic Notation in Contemporary Music (catalog), and The Future As Disruption, also at The Kitchen. In addition to his work at The Kitchen, Lyons has worked on group exhibitions Dance Dance Revolution at Columbia University, Character Generator at Eleven Rivington Gallery, and Two Moon July at Paula Cooper Gallery. He has contributed catalog essays on the work of Mika Tajima and Vlatka Horvat, and other writing has appeared in Document Journal, Flash Art, PERFORMA 07: Everywhere and All at Once, and Work the Room: A Handbook of Performance Strategies. He is Contributing Editor at Movement Research Performance Journal, having edited the “Six Sides, Typologically Distinct: Black Box / White Cube” series, which he initiated, between 2009-2015.

William Stover, Independent Curator Stover has been a curator of contemporary art for over 18 years and has held positions in a number of important and diverse institutions including the Carnegie Museum of Art, New Museum of Contemporary Art, Independent Curators International (ICI), and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Stover is one of the founding directors and co-curator for the non-profit arts organization Re-Sited, New York, which is dedicated to re-evaluating the psychology of the “exhibition site” – its particularities, materiality, and direct relationship to the work of art.

Tamas Veszi, Founder, RadiatorArts Veszi was born in Budapest in 1972 and from a very early age became familiar with contemporary art, painting, video art, performance, and conceptual thinking. He left Hungary at 17, finished his high school education in Israel, and was later accepted to the art school “Instituto Per L’Arte E IL Restauro” in Florence. He lived and worked in Paris before returning to Israel to work as a jeweler and jewelry designer. In 1996, Veszi applied for a Green Card and moved to New York. In 1998, he and several other residents of 70 Commercial Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, formed the “Greenpoint Riverfront Artists" group. They generated several performances, rooftop independent film screenings, and the annual “Open Studio Tour.” He received his B.F.A. degree from Pratt Institute in 2000, and received his M.F.A. degree in 2006 from Brooklyn College, where he studied under Elisabeth Murray and Vito Acconci. He has his first solo show at Allannederpelt Gallery in 2010, and has since participated in several exhibitions in New York and internationally. In 2016, Veszi participated in the EFA Shift Residency program, which provides peer support and studio space for artists who work in arts organizations. He is currently working on a solo exhibition in Hungary and a two person show in New York City, and continues to live and work in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

This program is presented by NYFA Learning. Sign up here to receive our bi-weekly newsletter for the latest updates and news about programs and opportunities for artists.

Image: Doctor’s Hours, September 2019, Photo Credit: NYFA Learning